1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a side impact air bag apparatus and a door arm rest, and more particularly to a side impact air bag apparatus which is mounted to an outer side of a side portion of a seat back frame of a vehicle seat, and to a vehicle door arm rest at which the side impact air bag is disposed.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a conventional side impact air bag apparatus for a vehicle, Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open (JP-U) No. 6-6124 discloses an air bag main body which is folded over in a triangular shape along a diagonal line connecting a front end lower corner of the air bag main body and a back end upper corner thereof, and thereafter, is accordion folded (i.e., folded into a bellows-like shape) so as to be accommodated within a door trim. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 5-294194 discloses an air bag main body which is accordion folded from both end portions of the air bag main body in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle to the center thereof, and thereafter, is rolled up from one of the vertical directions of the vehicle so as to be accommodated within a door trim. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 5-16751, U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,732 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 7-228213 disclose a method of folding an air bag main body which is accommodated within a door trim. Further, as a conventional side impact air bag apparatus for a vehicle, an air bag apparatus is mounted to an outer side of a side portion of a seat back frame. When an external force is applied to the side of the vehicle, an air bag body is unfolded between an inner portion of the vehicle (i.e., the portion of the door which opposes the vehicle compartment) and a side portion of the occupant. An example of such side impact air bag apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,342.
As illustrated in FIG. 14, in this side impact air bag apparatus, an air bag body 94 and an inflator 92 are accommodated within an unillustrated air bag case, which is mounted to an outer side of a side portion of an unillustrated seat back frame of a seat 90.
The air bag body 94 is rectangular when viewed from the side of the vehicle in an unfolded state, and is accommodated within the air bag case in a folded state. When the inflator operates, the air bag body 94 is unfolded as shown in FIG. 14. The air bag body 94 interposes between the occupant seated in the seat 90 and a wall portion at the vehicle compartment side so as to protect the occupant's chest from the impact of the vehicle.
However, in this side impact air bag apparatus, there is a case in which the occupant is seated in a state in which a seat back 90A of the seat 90 is moved from a reference position (a position shown by a solid line in FIG. 14) to a position (a position shown by an imaginary line in FIG. 14) at which the seat 90 is inclined forwardly. In this case, as illustrated by the imaginary line in FIG. 14, an unfolding direction distal end lower portion 94A of the unfolded air bag body 94 and a rear end portion 96A of a door arm rest 96, which protrudes to an inner surface of a door (i.e., the portion of the door which opposes the vehicle compartment), overlap when viewed from the side of the vehicle. As a result, in a case in which the air bag body 94 is pressed by the occupant and the door arm rest 96, local load is applied to the unfolding direction distal end lower portion 94A of the air bag body 94.